Page 147 of Forever To Me

This isn’t just a coincidence.

She’s herefor him.

And I have a sick feeling she’s about to make damn sure I know it.

“Hey,baby.”

Baby.

The word is like a bomb dropping into the middle of the bar. The way she says it, slow, intentional, like she’sstaking her claimmakes my stomach lurch.

Walker doesn’t move. His jaw is tight, his fingers twitching at his sides, and I canfeelthe tension rolling off him like he knows her.

My stomachdrops. Because I know that face. I knowthat smirk.

No. No, no, no.

She flicks her long blonde hair over her shoulder, her familiar expensive perfume reaching me before her voice does.

“Well, well.” Her eyes drag over me, slow and calculated, before she lets out a little laugh. “This isrich.”

I can’t move. I can’tbreathe. Because standing in front of me, smirking like the devil herself, isStella.

Stella.My former best friend.

The girl I trusted with everything—my songs, secrets, and dreams.

The same girl whostole everything from me.

The same girl who took the songs I wrote and put her name on them.

She called me a thief and made me lose my record deal while I had to leave town and rebuild my career and life. The woman who brokeme. No fucking way.

The air is too thick, the voices around me suddenly too loud. I feel Walker shift beside me, his hand brushing my arm, but I can’t look at him.

I can’t not look ather.She's the epitome of evil. Someone I trusted and now could never trust again.

Her lips curve. “Oh, Violet.”

She laughs again, shaking her head like this is the funniest thing in the world. “Icannotbelieve this. You and Asher?” Her eyes flash with something cold, somethingvicious. “I mean, I knew you liked my leftovers, butdamn, girl. You really went all in this time. Congratulations on this. Really, you truly played this game hard.”

My stomach twists so hard I think I might be sick. What is she talking about?

I swallow, forcing my voice to be steady. “What are you doing here, Stella?”

She tilts her head. “Oh, you know. Just passing through. Thought I’d check in onmy husband.”

She reaches out, dragging a manicured finger down his arm, and I feel my pulse slam into overdrive. “Imissedyou, baby.”

What the actual hell? This is Walker’s ex-wife? Oh, hell no. How could the universe be so freaking cruel?

Walker yanks his arm back, his expression sharp, but I don’t even register his reaction.

Because all I see isred. How dare she?

She already stole my songs. She already stole my career. And now she thinks she can waltz in here, flick her hair, flash thatlook-at-mesmile, and stake a claim onhim,too?

She smirks, like she can read my mind.

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